HYDERABAD: The Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments have dropped the plan to jointly divert Godavari waters to the Krishna river basin. Both the Telugu states still remain at odds over the diversion of Godavari waters and eventually came up with their own individual plans within their territories.
The Andhra Pradesh government is going ahead with its own plan of diverting water from Polavaram to Penna basin through Banakacherla reservoir. With this, the Telangana state government has also devised its own plan of diverting Godavari water from Kaleshwaram to supplement the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) ayacut.
“We have no official communication from AP that they are uninterested in diverting the Godavari water jointly with Telangana. As AP has prepared its own plan, Telangana too has gone ahead with its own plan,” sources from the Irrigation Department confirmed with Express.
The State’s plan is agreed in-principle by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Sources pointed out that after two meetings between Chief Ministers YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and K Chandrasekhar Rao, no further meetings have been held regarding the water diversion issue. "No meetings are proposed in the future too," sources said while indicating that both the states were approaching the Godavari water diversion separately.
Sources from the Irrigation Department felt that there were apprehensions in AP on working with the State. “AP feels that they will have to face problems in the future if the Godavari waters are diverted through Telangana and dropped at either Srisailam/Nagarjuna Sagar Project. Now, both the governments are maintaining friendly relations. There is no guarantee that there will be a friendly atmosphere between the two state governments in the future as well,” sources pointed out.
Andhra’s plan
The Godavari waters will be diverted from Polavaram to Banakacherla Head Regulator in Kurnool. From there, the water will be diverted to Rayalaseema and then to the Penna basin. The plan is to divert a total of 210 tmc, at the rate of two tmc per day. AP is planning to construct a balancing reservoir with a storage capacity of 150 tmcft at Bollapalle in Guntur district.
Telangana’s plan
The Mid Manair Reservoir will get three tmc of water from Kaleshwaram. So, Baswapur reservoir will be filled up with Kaleshwaram water. From there, the water will reach Shamirpet stream, Musi river, Asif Nah and there to Panagal stream. From Pedda Devulapalli, water would be diverted to NSP. The project will receive water from Godavari if floods are not reported at Krishna.
